Friday, May 28, 2010

as i promised, i would blog again before leaving to North Carolina this weekend =] i know its a bit late of an update--but im tryin ;)

my most recent mani, [the "blingy" one] didnt start to chip until Wednesday during work. it lasted me from last week Thursday @ midnight [the 20th] until this Wednesday in the afternoon [the 26th]. i was so surprised! none of the rhinestones started to fall off until then! a few people asked what i use to keep my rhinestones on - - i just use a dab of my topcoat where i want to put the rhinestone..then i apply the rhinestone on, and then after a minute or two, i apply a coat of topcoat over my whole nail. i dont reapply topcoat throughout the week either. but im happy the mani lasted me so long =] of course, i had to take of my polish Wednesday night cause i hate having chipped polish..and so i tried two of my new polishes. [oh! on Tuesday, i went to the mall and bought 6 new polishes.. -__- thank goodness i managed a whole week without buying polishes (last week)..and then i randomly splurged at the mall. ergh. haha]

*blurry. ergh! sorry!* i used Forever 21's Love & Beauty Black/Purple & Icing's Grape A Licious. my pointer & middle finger have regular topcoat & my ring finger & pinky have a coat of China Glaze's Matte Magic. not gunna lie, the polishes are WAYY prettier in the bottle..so i was disappointed when i applied them on my nail. in B/P, its obviously a black base with tiny purple glitters. when the polish is in the bottle, as you tilt the bottle around, the purple glitter starts to look orange & green in some lightings. when on my nail, you could barely see the glitters. GAL, in the bottle, has tiny blue and purple? glitter in it. when its on, the glitters dont look so tiny & the purple? glitter looks so *bleh. the blue glitters look pretty but it didnt capture well in the picture -__-

here are a picture of my thumbs..so random right? haha the colors dont even match my mani & i did random designs. haha i wish my batman logo came out prettier..but it didnt.. =(

so i wore this mani to work on thursday [which was yesterday - haha], and after work, i came home & layered my nails with a coat of Sally Hansen's Hidden Treasure.

again, regular topcoat on my first two fingers & matte on my last two. with Hidden Treasure over B/P, the tiny glitters were definitely no longer found. they disappeared! -haha- for real though, you couldnt see em at all! with HT over GAL, it brought out more of the purple but hid most of the blue glitter.

here is a picture with flash. you can [very] slightly see the blue glitter on my middle finger.

overall, these polishes were disappointing =( although application was a breeze! all those pictures had two coats of Black/Purple & Grape A Licious. even one coat of polish would've been fine ;)

after i tried that mani with Hidden Treasure, i took the pictures & then took off the polish. of course i couldnt go to North Carolina with my nails looking like that! =P so i ended up doing my nails last night & they ended up like this..

JUST KIDDING! =) this is just a swatch of my polish. hahaha uhm..i FINALLY got around to trying out Petites Creme Blue. its a pretty, pretty, powder blue. in the picture, the blue looks dusty/dark but its really a bit brighter. [maybe its just the bad lighting in my basement..i think so. haha]

the blue here is more accurate =P my ring finger design was inspired by a gift bag that i saw @ work. it was the cutest thing! so i tried to make my nails like it. ahaha. uhm, i also tried a new way of doing flowers. they turned out alright. i used three silver beads as the middle of my flowers. uhm, i usually make my ring finger the odd color but this time, i did it to my middle finger. i used turquoise-ish glitter & made a heart, then i lined the heart with tiny silver beads. i tried to do a glitter gradient on my pointer finger, but i failed @ it..so i drew lines on top & put some silver beads on. then i did a half-moon thing on my ring finger with the silver beads..and by that time, it was almost 1am so i went easy on my thumb & drew on two lines.. =P those beads are a pain in the ass! -just sayin. i dont know why i used so many in this mani! haha

when i woke up at 11am today [HAHA! yep. i slept in today!] i didnt like my pointer finger - - at all! i wanted to change it so badly! but right when i woke up, i got ready & i was out the door to run errands. i've been going crazy today! im super moody & i had to drive around town with my grandma with my gas tank light flashing at me reminding me that i dont have gas left; along with my phone constantly ringing cause there are things that people want me to do; plus, i havent packed yet nor did i eat nor have my coffee while i was up, driving around.

anyway, i finally got home around 130am & i ate & just relaxed a bit. i also just redid my pointer finger nail about...15min ago?! =P here's how it turned out.

i used my favorite pastel blue polish, Finger Paints' Blissfully Blue as the base & i used Creme Blue & white polish for the dots. its simple; but i like it better.

wow! today i threw in a bunch of random things! hopefully i didnt bore ya to death! im not sure if this post makes much sense cause i have a headache & im trying to hurry & write down all the stuff in my head but theres too many random stuff floating on my mind right now. plus, i gotta get packing cause its already 330pm & we're leaving in about.. 2.5 hours! and i take FOREVERRRR to pack, so i should start... haha

if youre in the States, have a fun & safe Memorial Weekend! if you're not in the States, have a fun & safe weekend!! =)

Monday, May 24, 2010

sorry i havent posted since...Wednesday!? i redid my nails on Friday night but i usually dont have time to blog on the weekends so i wasnt able to post anything until now. hopefully you all had a great weekend ;)

on to my nails... this is a picture with flash..but its more color accurate. i used my Nina Pro Black & Essie's New Whimsical. Neo Whimsical is a really light lavender with hints of pink. [Salena was determined that NW is pink & not lavender. haha]

here's another angle of my nails..in the sunlight. i used 4mm jump rings [i saw a lot of Japanese nail art with jump rings so i gave it a shot.. =P] i also used 2.2mm, 3mm, & 5mm rhinestones. and then i used silver & purple glitter as well.

hmm..guess what? i completed my week of NO BUY!! *claps! thanks to everyone for their support! haha i actually dont really HAVE to have any polishes at the moment - - besides for OPI's Shrek collection..haha. but im gunna try to keep my polish buying low cause i have many new & unused polishes that keep staking up! hopefully i'll get to trying those soon!

anyway, im going to North Carolina this weekend with my family to visit family & friends. hopefully i'll be able to post again this week...i should be able to.. =P

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

today is a beautiful day--the sun is out & its pretty warm, contrary to yesterdays dark, gloomy weather. sucks that i have to go work in a while..

so yesterday i was in a pretty bad mood & i wanted to paint my nails. but i've been feeling uninspired lately..so i spent almost an hour looking at nail art on flickr & tumblr & on blogs. i think i ended up liking 4 designs..? -__- anyway, when i started doing my nails [around 10pm] i didnt like it so i redid it..and started a new mani around 11pm. i didnt finish til about 1am...? i was so tired & i free-handed everythingggg [so it took much longer]...but i guess my nails turned out pretty good...

my middle finger was inspired by Emerald Sparkled's post. from there, the rest of my nails were inspired by random tumblr posts...and some that i made up during the night.. =P

i honestly didnt even know i had Golden Child & Magic [which is the copper-y polish]. thank goodness im on my "no buying nail polish week" cause theres all these pretty polishes i have & have never used! haha speaking of my "no buying nail polish" thing..i think its going pretty well. its already Wednesday & i've not bought one polish =) BUT! i have a question...im running OUT of my basecoat...if i go buy a new bottle basecoat, will that break my polish ban? cause i dont have any more basecoat...ah! what to do! o__O

oh, by the way, "Tired & Uninspired" is the title of a song by My American Heart. i love watching AJ Rafael on youtube & here is his cover of Tired & Uninspired with Jesse Barrera (who is in My American Heart).

uhm..i personally like the fimo on nails without a full nail base color. the fimo with the tip of the nail painted looks cuter. i'll have to try a manicure of just tips & fimo one day... moving on..Friday was also the day of Kiana's prom. i was her personal chauffeur that day. i drove her everywhere to get ready & also i had to buy her everything. she was going NUTSSS cause her boyfriend accidentally burned his shirt when ironing it, just 2 hours before prom..Kiana spazzed out on me & Salena to take him to get a new shirt...so we did. she's a Prom-zilla! gosh! i cant imagine how crazy she'll be when its her WEDDING day! i wanna avoid that! hahaha

but i did do her nails. she told me i could do whatever i wanted & then when i finally did them Friday afternoon, she wouldnt let me do what i wanted. i had to do what SHE wanted. it was very aggravating for me... =P here's how her nails turned out...

this was my first time doing a full manicure with acrylics. its not too bad but it didnt turn out too well either...

here's a close up;i literally bugged her for 20 minutes to let me put on the burgundy glitter. she's such a pain! =P

to end this entry..i even though i tweeted it on twitter..i wanna post it on here too. starting today, im going to [try] to go a full week without buying any nail polishes! since March, every single week, i've bought nail polishes..thus i have SOOO many untried polishes just stacking up!~ its pretty ridiculous! i've been meaning to buy new volleyball shoes for foreverrrr now but i spend all my money on nail polishes...but this week...im gunna try REALLY hard not to buy nail polishes & get new clothes & shoes ^^ please wish me luck..i need all the luck cause i have no self control what-so-ever! and if you have tips on how NOT to buy polishes, please share! ahahaha

Friday, May 14, 2010

its that time!... its time for my second giveaway! i really appreciate all of your feedback & for keeping up with me. and i really enjoy hearing from all of you! THANKS sooo much! =) so to show my gratefulness...i've decided to share some of my favorite polishes with YOU! - this will polishes ranging from; silver glitter, iridescent, girly pink, a classic China Glaze, my newest favorite awesome glitter, & a green polish =)

[all of these polishes are brand new. they arent literally my polishes. haha & all of these polishes were purchased by me.]

[**just a heads up; the two OPI polishes have like, a white mark / indent on their bottles--that is not from me..thats how i bought it from Meijer. all OPI's @ Meijer has a mark on the bottles. -you can see the white mark more clearly on the bottle of Jade is the New Black. i cant do anything about it.]

the rules:

in ONE comment please leave....

**] you must be an awesome reader, meaning you have to be following my blog.1] your name / google friend connect name + email address. [one entry]2] blog about my giveaway - with a link provided. [extra entry]3] follow me on twitter & tweet about my giveaway - with a link provided. [extra entry]

this giveaway will endMonday, May 31@ 11:59pm eastern time. the winner will be announced a day or two after.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

hows your Thursday been? --mine started out with pouring rain, thunder, and lots of wind!

i was super mad cause i planned a polish hunt after i failed my math exam...but the way it was POURING RAIN this morning was just crazy! so, i went to class & failed my exam...but when i stepped outside, the rain had stopped! it was dark & cloudy out, full with puddles..but it wasnt raining! so i went on ahead with my polish hunt! =) i was hunting down OPI's Mad As A Hatter & i've already tried to find it at 2 other Meijers..so today, i tried a new Meijer! the whole store set up was different..i felt so lost. haha there is usually a sale end-cap stand by the polishes...and thats where i find the OPI polishes that are on sale. at this new Meijer, i found one end-cap with Bullish on OPI for $2.12 ONLY! so i picked it up! i didnt see any other OPI polishes..so i was quite disappointed. i wandered the polish section twice just to make sure. i was so bummed..and as i was about to walk away, i looked up & found two bottles of Mad As A Hatter, about 6 bottles of Absolutely Alice, and about 10 bottles of Off With Her Head! i literally RAN to the stand, grabbed the last two Mad As A Hatter & i grabbed an extra bottle of Absolutely Alice! then i went home happily =)

hmm..i got home & i wanted to try MAAH right away..but i LOOOOVE Absolutely Alice soooo much, i didnt want to take it off. haha so i decided to keep my right hand polished with AA & i swatched some polishes on my left hand...and now its painted with MAAH.

just a forewarning.. like i said..its super dark out today so i dont have any pretty pictures. some of the pictures look fuzzy / blurry but i made sure they were as color accurate as possible. SORRY! -__- ok!...straight to the swatches..

first, Off With Her Red! 2 coats. its a beautiful, deep red.

here's Bullish On OPI. 2 coats. doesnt it look like OWHR! ? theyre SOOO similar, but theyre not the same. application for BO OPI was better than OWHR.

here's a comparison picture of the two. 2 coats of both polish. you can BARELY tell..but OWHR is a bit brighter whereas BO OPI is a deeper red.

Hot & Spicy. 3 coats. this polish isnt my favorite when looking at it while its in the bottle. but when its on, its a favorite! its a light orange but i think it has some sort of pink undertone. it becomes more coral in some lightings than others.

A Good Man-Darin is Hard to Find. 3 coats. a nice, bright, deep orange.

Lucky Lucky Lavender. 3 coats. this polish is a favorite just looking at the bottle..but when its on...its LOVE!!! its such a beautiful lilac/lavender color. there must be some pink undertones in this polish too cause it leans pink in some lightings. doesnt this polish make my nails look pretty? i've had Jade is the New Black for a little more than a month & this was my first time using it. 2 coats here .. and the polish is a bit more deep, hunter green in person than shown in the picture. application was great ! love this color =)

lastly, Mad As A Hatter ! i was literally going mad for this polish...i even had a dream about it..what a weirdo, right? HAHA anyway, its mostly silver + purple glitters but you cant really see the purple in the picture. its a pretty polish but hmm..im not gunna lie, it didnt meet up to its standards. HAHA i think i fell too much in love with Absolutely Alice that Mad As A Hatter just doesnt compare!~ hahaha

again, sorry for the bad pictures! -__-

hmm, in a bit, im gunna go pick up Kiana from school & we're gunna go to the mall & Sally's. so hopefully i'll be able to pick up a few things from there =)

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

i think im in love with this polish. OPI's Absolutely Alice is an absolute beauty!~

if you follow me on twitter, you know [maybe] that i went on a mini-polish hunt on rainy, windy Tuesday. i've been hunting Meijers down for OPI's Alice in Wonderland collection...especially since they are only $4.24 @ Meijers. i went to two Meijers that day..and also a Sally's. i was able to pick up the last two bottle of Absolutely Alice, one bottle of Off With Her Red, Essie's Neo Whimsical, & Maybelline's La La Lime from Meijers. i stopped by Sally's to pick up a bottle of China Glaze's Flip Flop Fantasy but they were out...so i picked up a bottle of Sun Worshipper, Finger Paints' Drawn To This Shade, and a few other polishes for my *upcoming giveaway =) i also got another 15% off coupon & im SO excited! hahaha

anyway..onto my swatch of Absolutely Alice..

this polish is so much more beautiful in real life than it is in pictures. i've seen so many swatches of AA & so i thought AA was a dark, navy blue w/silver glitter polish. but when its on, the silver and the blue together make the blue look more bright royal blue / turquoise. i cant explain it well...its just so freakin pretty!

here's a blurry-ish but more color accurate picture.

i cant stop looking at my nails... ^__^

anyway, i took a break from studying to paint my nails & blog. i guess i better get back! tomorrow morning at 10am, i have my final - final exam of the semester =) i know im not going to do well on my exam..so i've prepared something for myself.. after i do horribly, im gunna treat myself another polish hunt =) im gunna try a new Meijer & stop by another Sally's. =) im determined to get Mad as a Hatter & Flip Flop Fantasy!

here's a picture with the flash on..i forgot to turn the flash off...but the picture turned out ok..so its all good =)

here's a picture with lighting from the beautiful sun =) see the awesome gold glitters? -beauty! =)

i've read lots, and lots, and lots of reviews on Strawberry Fields so i finally picked myself up a bottle a month or two ago. my mom tried it and loved it but yesterday was my first time using it. its really worth all the rave that it gets! but personally, its a bit too girly for me... which is weird cause i LOVE pink polishes and all..but...yea... =P

of course..i needed to do some nail art of some sort on my nails..so what else would be better with Strawberry Fields than some strawberries!?

now this is super girly! haha

the pink base on my ring finger is Revlon's Pink Chiffon. application as a huge P A I N! the polish is super streaky.. i had to use 4 coats of polish, although i didnt want to ... uhm, the stripes on my thumb is.. Maybelline's Bubble Pink. much easier to work with than Revlons.

Mint Fusion - 3 coats. 2 coats would've been ok but i used 3 to avoid bald spots. this one has a shimmer that you can barely see in the picture. Mint Fusion had awesome application and quickly became my favorite of the bunch! i couldnt stop looking at it =)

Lemon Drops - 3 coats. i always feel uneasy buying yellow polishes that havent been reviewed. the first two coats were really ugly. the polish looked like a dirty yellow/golden on my nails. the third coat finally looked like the bottle color.

Sunkist Paradise - 3 coats. first two layers were thin but third layer evened it out. better application than Lemon Drops. this polish color reminds me of a tangerine =P

Cherry Pop - 1 coat; thats right! ONE! well, i painted my ring finger with 2 coats just to show you. there isnt much of a difference besides for that fact that it is just a smidge darker than one coated nails. application was theeeee best! =)

the other 4 polishes from this Wet n Wild collection, which are a light/baby pink, a blue/green shimmer, a deeper purple, and another red polish..i probably wont go pick up. if i do pick any of the 4 up, it would probably be the light/baby pink or deep purple. but in any case, how do you like these colors? for $0.99 per bottle, its a good find! =)

oh! lastly, in yesterday's post, i was talking about how i wanted to try to avoid going into Sally's. i forgot to mention that i have two 15% off coupons that expire at the end of May..so of course that means that i have to go back, right!? cant let them expire & go to waste! -haha uhm...but when i went into Sally's the other day, i walked right past China Glaze's Poolside collection stand; the colors arent really my cup of tea...i've seen swatches & all...but still...not exactly digging the colors. although i will say that Flip Flop Fantasy caught my attention for 2 seconds... maybe i'll stop and pick one up at my next Sally's visit. do you think there is a MUST-HAVE Poolside polish i should pick up? ooh, and i also need to go back to Sally's to pick up a few more items for my giveaway =)

enjoy your day!,<3KATRINA

-edit:[513pm] i really have no self-control! i just got back from Meijer with 3 OPI polishes - from the Hong Kong collection! after Erin told me that she bought a bottle of OPI's Mad as a Hatter from Meijer, i've been visiting Meijer once every two weeks to see if the Alice in Wonderland collection had come in. sadly, they still are not in..but Meijer had all of the Hong Kong collection polishes on sale, $4.24 per bottle! thats HALF the regular price! so, of course, i had to pick up a few bottles. since i already have Suzie Says Feng Shui, Jade is the New Black, and Dim Sum Plum, i picked up these three....

Hot and Spicy, Lucky Lucky Lavender, and A Good Man-Darin is Hard to Find.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

i've been trying to NOT buy nail polish for the past few weeks but i have no self control, whatsoever. yesterday, i got an email from Sally's saying Finger Paints has a new collection, Love at First Bright & the limited Glitters Collection. of course i wanted to avoid Sally's but yesterday, i went & got my hair cut...and there is a Sally's just down the plaza from the hair salon. so, my self-control-less self went to Sally's afterward =P

Monday, May 3, 2010

its been long overdue..sorry! after my first attempt of uploading my video onto youtube, about two or three weeks ago, everything got messed up & i was so frustrated, i havent touched my video until today.

for some reason, youtube would only upload the first 4 minutes & 07 seconds of my entire video..so i had to split the last 1 minute & 10 seconds onto another video . [lame, right!?!?!?!] so i have two parts to this tutorial. sorry its not the best! -quality wise & detail wise! this was my first video tutorial so everything was a bit awkward for me. haha

here goes!;

hope you enjoyed it! if you have any tips for making video tutorials, please share!

Sunday, May 2, 2010

yesterday was my cousin's wedding...so of course i had to do my nails. on Wednesday night, i asked my sister Kiana how i should do my nails and she said "just do something simple. its not your wedding, dont do something too nice!" - haha. so since it wasnt my wedding, here are my simple nails;

my dress was mauve-ish with a shimmer & i wore white shoes & necklace... so i did a simple french tip with mauve & white roses...w/a shimmer layer on top.

here's a better picture of the shimmer on my nails;

a picture of me & my sisters; Salena -- me -- Kiana.

moving on, since Stephanie posted about Wet n Wild's new line of colors last week...i've been on a hunt! and i found them today! - and a few other polishes!

my Rimmel was only $1.00 @ CVS; the SC polish is for my Kiana...i have to do her nails for prom & thats a perfect shade of her dress!; Petite came out with new polishes--hopefully better than the old!--$3.99 per bottle but it was "buy one get one 50% off" at Rite-Aide so i got one for about $1.99. Rite-Aide also had the "buy one get one 50% off" on Sally Hansen polishes so i bought another Hidden Treasure, for my next giveaway =) & i picked up a Gray by Gray for myself!

i've been slowly getting things together for my next giveaway, by the way =)

well, i hope your weekend has been well =) i know i've been super crabby cause of the annoyingly hot & humid weather we're having in Michigan. haha